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Show The corruption extends all the way down to the dock workers who demand $10 to unload American shipments. At each of the four check-point- s between Bangkok and the Laos border, too, police demand $1 apiece for every truckload of American material. And at the Mekong River, ferry operators want to be tipped up to $20 for every truck they haul across to Vientiane. In the 300 miles between the Bangkok docks and the Laotian capital, at least five percent of the value of American aid is siphoned off by police, laborers and government officials. Even Thailand's swinging King l, a figurehead in this military dictatorship, appears to have prospered from American aid. His holdings are administered by a government group, called the Crown Bureau, which operates, Property among other things, the Siam Cement Corp. , Bhu-mibo- Thai troops get lesson in river-crossin- g from U.S. sergeant. Cost to taxpayers is boosted by waste and graft. No competition Are They Robins Us Bliofl id Ihoilanil? BY JACK BANGKOK AND WASHINGTON, D.C.' Imost next door to Vietnam, in the lush kingdom of Thailand, we're being robbed of millions of dollars. Day in and day out, through extortion and waste, vast sums go down the drain and we're not doing much to stop it. The reason is there isn't much we a can do. Our friends in Thailand country which a century ago tried to give Abraham Lincoln elephants to use in the Civil War have us over a barrel. With 45,000 U.S. troops to maintain in Thailand, most of them manning seven air bases, and with commitments to train and advise the Thai military to fight Communist guerrillas and invaders, Washington is stuck with large spending in the Asian kingdom. And the Thai people, from lowjy dock workers to top government officials, have some pretty loose morals when it comes to American dollars. It seems that almost anyone who can get his hand in the till r, busy doing so. It's vexing but it's the price to be paid for keeping a military presence in a country where graft is a way of life. And, in the case of Thailand, it's probably cheaper to take the losses rather than try to operate from a distant base such as Guam. At times, though, it seems that the U.S. has learned little from its mistakes in Vietnam. In Thailand American spending has been conspicuous and poorly planned. Just as in Vietnam, our seven air bases are surrounded by pockets of inflation. American-buil- t roads have crumbled because of bad A locomoengineering. American-mad- e tives have broken down under heavy work because, mistakenly, small switch engines were brought in. ANDERSON Gl spending sprees are also causing the same resentments in Bangkok that eventually forced the Army to withdraw all but "essential" troops from Saigon. Indeed, the U.S. sends Gl's from Vietnam to Bangkok for rest and recreation. The requirement that they wear civilian clothes makes the burly, soldiers no less noticeable as they wander the streets with pretty arm-in-ar- m Thai girls. Although the seven bases were constructed at enormous expense to the U.S., the title to them is held by the Thai government. Yet the U.S. not only erected the facilities but also purchased the land. And when the Americans pull out, Uncle Sam has agreed to turn over all surplus equipment to the Thais. The accumulation already is worth millions. The U.S. started to build one base at Nam Phong, sank $15.2 million into Pretty Ibai girls provide companionC Is in Bangkok. ship for g two magnificent concrete runways, four connecting ramps and an aircraft parking area, then abandoned the whole project. The complex now lies deserted among the scrub brush on a lonely flatland. Yet even as work was stopped on this base, other contractors began constructing an enormous airport 40 mil's outside Bangkok as a training academy for the Royal Thai Air Force. The Americans couldn't persuade Thai officers to take their flight training at Nam Phong away from the bright lights of Bangkok. Cost to the taxpayers: another $15 million. A lust for money the gentle, gracious Thai people less avaricious than the Vietnamese, are the aid that the U.S. is pumping into Thailand is awakening in them a lust for money. All highway express, for example, is controlled by the Express Transport Organization. The government owns 51 percent of the stock, but the other 49 percent is in the hands of high government officials who make a profit on the government monopoly. U.S. shipments to Laos must pass through Thailand, and most of the goods are hauled by ETO. Private truckers are permitted to bid only for the jobs that ETO is too busy to handle. Yet the bids from the independent truckers invariably are lower than the ETO price. An aid official has calculated that one dollar out of every eight spent to move supplies across Thailand has gone to line the pockets of a few Thai officials. Some Americans defended the ETO monopoly, however, by pointing out that its trucks and drivers are more If Unlike the trucking industry, Siam Cement is not a monopoly, and the U.S. is free to purchase cement from any supplier willing to bid. But other businessmen are understandably unwilling to compete against the royal cement works. It may also come as no surprise that Siam Cement has managed to squeeze greater profits out of Uncle Sam than from any other purchasers. Cement shipments recently went from Siam Cement to both Saigon and Singapore for $5 a ton less than the American government pays for cement inside Thailand. All told, the overcharges are figured ai more than $200,000 and aid officials are asking for a refund. If U.S. shipments to Thailand are delivered in a very leaky bucket, the government at least is trying to plug the holes. The Thais, practitioners of a permissive form of Buddhism, don't get as worked up as Americans do over corruption. If the enrichment isn't too blatant, they don't mind that public officials use their political power for personal gain. Out of concern for American sensibilities, however, some Thai officials have made valiant attempts to change the system. The Prime Minister, for example, ordered his son to give up his directorship of a major bank. The fact that the son refused didn't diminish the Prime Minister's good intention. In helping Thailand prepare itself against a possibly impending Communist threat, the U.S. is acting under arrangement of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. Ironically, the shoe was once on the other foot. During the American Civil War, Thailand became the first nation ever to offer foreign aid to the U.S. King Rama IV the monarch of The King and I admired Abraham Lincoln and sought to aid the Union army by sending elephants to America. Now Washington is finding that it's quite expensive to help the onetime would-b- e helper. 23 - " |